Francis accuses the rich of eating at banquets 'what in justice belongs to all'

"Selfie" session with Pope Francis on Nov. 16 during his visit to the dispensary for the poor and homeless set up in St. Peter's Square throughout the weekend. (Photo Handout/AFP)

Pope Francis celebrated Mass at St. Peter’s Basilica this past Sunday to mark the Second World Day of the Poor, an event he launched after the Jubilee for the Homeless was held in Rome in 2016.

In his homily Nov. 18, the pope accused the rich of eating at banquets “what in justice belongs to all.”

“It’s impressive! I can hardly believe it,” exclaimed white-bearded Yannick, 50, who was previously married but has lived since January in a house belonging to the Lazarus Association in Brussels.

With a front row seat at Pope Francis’ Mass for the Second World Day of the Poor, he was still pinching himself over the fact that he had now found himself at the foot of Bernini’s columns in St. Peter’s Basilica.

“I was unable to come last year, but now I am going to meet the pope,” he smiled, his face beaming despite a life of suffering. “I never expected anything like this. It’s really the icing on the cake,” he said.

A theological demand

“We often see the poor outside the church door but today they are right at the center, near the pope. That’s a big change,” said Etienne Villemain, who originally proposed the holding of a World Day of the Poor to Pope Francis during the Jubilee of the Homeless in 2016.

“The Church has found its charism, which is to be with Jesus through the poor,” he said. “We are all poor but we enrich ourselves by being close to the poor," he added.

Villemain said he is pleased that there is a new current at work in the Church combining the “social and spiritual dimensions.”

“The two dimensions are no longer opposed to each and that is incredibly rich,” he said, listing a series of initiatives currently being held around the world.

Pope Francis made a similar point in his homily before a packed St. Peter’s Basilica in which he emphasized the importance of “living the faith in contact with the needy.”

“This is not a sociological option; it is a theological requirement,” the pope said.

“It entails acknowledging that we are beggars pleading for salvation, brothers and sisters of all, but especially of the poor,” he emphasized.

The beginning of faith is “to cast off the pride that makes us feel self-sufficient, and to realize that we are in need of salvation,” Francis pointed out.

Echoing the theology of liberation, the pope stressed the necessity of listening to “the cry of the poor”.

“It is the stifled cry of the unborn, starving children, and young people more who are used to the explosion of bombs more than the happy shouts of the playground.

“It is the cry of the elderly, cast off and those abandoned to themselves.

“It is the cry of all those who face the storms of life without the presence of a friend.

“It is the cry of all those forced to flee their homes and native land for an uncertain future.

“It is the cry of entire peoples, deprived even of the great natural resources at their disposal,” the pope continued.

The cry of the poor is stronger each day

It is the cry of the poor “while the wealthy few feast on what, in justice, belongs to all,” Francis said, noting that “injustice is the perverse root of poverty.”

“The cry of the poor daily becomes stronger but is heard less, drowned out by the din of the rich few, who grow ever fewer and more rich,” he said, appealing “to give to those who have nothing, to give back, to love gratuitously.”

“Let us look around in our own day. For all that we do, do we ever do anything completely for free, something for a person who cannot repay us? That will be our outstretched hand, our true treasure in heaven,” the pope concluded.

Poor at lunch in the Paul VI Hall

After the Angelus, Pope Francis joined a very different kind of banquet to which he had invited 1,500 poor people.

The event took place in the Paul VI Audience Hall, transformed for the occasion into a giant dining room for a meal served by the Hotel Rome Cavalieri, a Waldorf Astoria property that is one of the Eternal Ciity’s most luxurious venues.

Seated among the people and listening attentively to their stories, Francis, who seemed tired at the beginning of Mass, appeared more joyful and relaxed.

In the midst of people who had experienced the street together with those serving them, the pope appeared totally recharged.

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